Love Strung

This story is by J. A. Newbourne and was part of our 2023 Fall Writing Contest. You can find all the writing contest stories here.

Ophirus and Marion had captured something beautiful: each other. Their lives had been flooded with love for one another. This love made hearing the news from the messenger all the harder for Ophirus.  

His Marion had gone to sea a week prior. It was the first time since they met that they would be apart for more than a day. He had waved goodbye to her reluctantly. She wore an ornate gold necklace with a sapphire pendant, a gift from Ophirus to remind her of him as they were apart. It glimmered in the light as she waved to him from the stern of the ship. He watched her as the ship drifted off across the horizon. He already longed to be reunited with her, but he knew that she needed to pay respects to her father who had passed on and Ophirus had obligations to oversee his new estate.

The messenger who brought Ophirus the news about Marion was hesitant to even speak, he knew the words he carried would be too much to bear. Ophirus saw his reluctance to speak and told him to “Spit it out.”

So the messenger did. On Marion’s return voyage, a storm swelled, surprising the vessel. The crew fought diligently, but the sea ended up swallowing the ship. It and its occupants bodies now all lay at the bottom of Poseidon’s domain. 

Ophirus could not accept these words. How could this be? However time, in its unrelenting nature, forced Ophirus to recognize the truth. His Marion was dead. 

Ophirus wallowed in anguish for weeks. Through his misery he could barely even function. One night his sorrow turned to anger. He cursed the gods. How could they take her from him? Then he pleaded, “Please, please let me find love again, I want to find my love again.” 

Ophirus fell to the ground exhausted. He saw a vision of Aphrodite looking down upon him. She pointed outward and he saw mountains, plains, and then the sea. A faint line showed a path along the lands.

Ophirus awoke, not even realizing he had fallen asleep. He looked down and saw a string tied to his longest finger.  It was leading out his door. It was almost imperceptible, but it was there. In fact, he felt a slight tug from it and a warm feeling washed over him. He knew from his vision that this was an answer to his outcry. This string led to love. He stood with elation, filled with a new passion, purpose, a quest. Who would his new love be? He set off at once.

Ophirus’s eagerness to rediscover love pushed him onward. He began to accept Marion’s death. He reflected on the wonder of their love as he trekked along the stream that led to the mountains to the East. It was by this stream he and Marion often walked by hand in hand, talking and laughing. 

Ophirus could start to see the beauty of what he and Marion had had, even through the grief that had overwhelmed him. He still longed for Marion, but was excited to see what new love awaited him. The stream guided him to the mountains. They were cold and lonely. He remembered Marion’s warm embrace. She had always been near to him. She had filled him with warmth from her love. These memories gave Ophirus to strength to get through the mountains. The string directed his path and soon enough the mountains ended and the plains began. 

The plains were open and filled with life. Marion would have loved this adventure. It had been an arduous journey so far, but refreshing too. Ophirus trekked on relentlessly. He must recapture the love that was at the end of this string. 

Eventually the plains became sand: a beach upon the edge of a sea. He followed the string right to the shoreline and it plunged straight into the water. He stepped into the shallows of the cool sea and pondered what to do. The water lapped at his heels. 

Ophirus looked at the sea, and it seemed to stretch on forever. Perhaps it led to another country, some foreign land. Maybe this was the end or had it all been a ruse. How could he trust the gods anyway? Poseidon had let his Marion drown in waters like these. She had been stolen away from him. Ophirus spit in the water in disgust. 

He could cut the string and just be done with it all. He could finally choose to move on and make his own path. Ophirus was upset. Unsure of what to do he started tugging on the string. Maybe he could pull his love to him. He pulled and pulled. It went tight, but did not budge. The string still seemed to dive straight down into the depth of the sea. 

Ophirus was at a crossroads. He let the string go loose again and let out an exclamation of defeat and despair. He fell to his knees, they splashed into the water. In the ripples of the water he saw his distorted reflection. He squinted to look at it better and considered what lay beneath the surface of this sea. 

Maybe if he just dived under to see where the string led, he’d know if he should follow it. That thought settled in his mind. He must continue on to find love again. He regained his composure and took a minute to calm himself. Then he dove into the sea. He swam and swam, deeper and deeper. Something beckoning him, he knew the end of the string was near. 

A silver fish darted in front of Ophirus and he felt the oxygen in his lungs running low. However he continued, swimming deeper than he ever had. Even the light started to dim at this depth. Then all of the sudden the string ran out. He had reached its end!

It was tied to something. Ophirus was suddenly aware of the air in his lungs and saw what the string was tied too. A skeleton that wore an ornate gold necklace with a sapphire pendant. He let out a gasp. Water immediately filled his lungs. Ophirus’s vision faded to an inky black. 

Ophirus emerged somewhere unknown. He was no longer in the sea but stood in front of a large river. It was a gloomy place, but someone stood like a beacon of light on the other shore. It was Marion, looking toward him from across the River Styx.